Masks used for treatment of SDB such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) are typically held on a patient's head by headgear. Headgear typically includes one or more headgear straps that are adapted to engage with the mask and hold the mask in position on the patient's face. In addition, headgear should be comfortable so that a patient can wear the mask at night while they sleep. There is a continuous need in the art for headgear that is comfortable, fits a wide range of patients, is easily manufactured, and is inexpensive.
Known methods of manufacturing headgear involve cutting headgear components 1020 from a sheet of fabric 1000, as shown in FIG. 1. A problem with this method is that it renders a relatively large portion of the sheet 1000 to waste. While waste can be minimized by nesting the headgear pieces as closely as possible on the sheet 1000, the cutting step required in this process ensures that waste material will be produced. In manufacturing headgear in a conventional manner, several different materials and several different manufacturing processes must be used. In manufacturing headgear, considerable time and labor is required to cut the components and sub-components to an appropriate size and shape, and to stitch or bond or laminate these elements to each other. These techniques are time, labor, and process intensive, and the cutting or trimming process usually results in an undesirable amount of waste compared to the part of the material actually used, even with appropriate nesting of components.